


How the Reaper left Charming

by 1000lux



Category: Sons of Anarchy
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Jax lives, Post Season 7, comfort-writing, don't read if you haven't watched Papa's Goods yet, finale-reaction, fuck-self-sacrificing-suicide, papa's goods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 01:22:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000lux/pseuds/1000lux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reaction to watching the final episode of Sons of Anarchy. Chibs sort-of saves the day and is putting in words what I felt concerning the way things turned out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How the Reaper left Charming

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan fiction, I own neither rights to the characters nor to the series.
> 
> I wanted to write an ending that had the feeling of the show. So, it's gotten a lot of changing scenes and symbologism in it.
> 
> Biggest inspiration and creator of the title has been my sister, who's watched the show with me.

"I have a plan, Chibs. It's all going to be okay." Jax smiles.

And he tells Chibs his plan. He tells him all of it.

"You see, it's the only way the club will survive."

"I will talk to the others."

*

When Jax arrives, all of them are assembled, all his brothers.

"I talked to them, and we all agree." Chibs receives nods from all the other collected who remain silent. "If we do this, Jackie," Chibs says and pauses. "we might as well all take off our cuts. Because then we've lost everything this club was ever supposed to stand for. That's not going to happen. We will vote for you to be expelled. And maybe, if you can forgive yourself enough to give it a try, you can honor Tara's wish and give your boys that new life."

"It's too late for that, Chibs."

"It's not too late. I won't watch you commit suicide over something you did in a state where none of us should have allowed you to make decisions. I won't let you kill yourself for something like peace on the streets. I won't destroy family over something that means nothing at the end of the day." Chibs pauses, looking down on himself. "Because it means nothing." He adds in a whisper. "You don't want your patch no more, well neither do I." 

"It's not that easy. What about Marks? What about Barosky? I killed Gemma and Unser."

"Jackie, I don't give a shit about some rat living out there. Barosky can grow to old age for what it concerns me. Gemma and Unser? Who knows, maybe we'll never find out who killed them. Might have been retaliation from the Chinese or maybe even from August Marks. And you, Jackie, you will do one thing. You will go to Patterson and you will offer her a deal. You will give her everything we have on August Marks and she will be only too glad to give you witness protection. You will take your kids and Wendy and you will vanish. You hear me, Jackie? No one here wants to see you ever again. We will deal with whatever comes after that. And you, you little son of a bitch, you won't take the easy way out and take all our sins with yours on top. You're not Jesus, Jackie. And no one wants you to die for us."

*

"What do you want?" Althea asks, face set.

"The club has lost what it stood for a long time ago."

"Is this going to be a confession?" She asks, sardonically.

Chibs smiles. "Yeah. We had lost it long before Bobby died. Before Tara died. We had forgotten, but we were still doing the motions. It's not worth it to lose just a single person you care about for the rules made by men on bikes who carry guns. That's all we are. Dumb boys who grew up to be criminals. And we threw away so much for a carved figure on a wooden table. And he is death. Death's been following us all along and he took from us and took and we let him. I'm tired, Althea." He takes out his knife. "You don't realise how tired you are until a good friend asks you to kill him. Did I ever tell you how Opie died for us? We always thought revenge would make it all better, when the people shouldn't have died in the first place. You know, Althea, you're the first good thing that has happened to me in a long time." He starts cutting off his patches. First 'V. President' then 'Man of Mayhem'. "I know we both said a few things on that matter." He takes a step closer to her. "But, if you are interested in a relationship to a former felon with a penchant for bikes and an unprofitable job as a mechanic," He places the patches in her hand. "Give me a call."

*

"But, what are you going to do, baby?" Venus asks, combing her fingers through Tigs' hair.

"We're going to be exactly what we are. A few friends who like to ride motorbikes and have a garage. We've been short on money all these years anyway."

"Okay, angel." Venus smiles, throwing a look back into the hall where the cut is still lying on the floor. Abandoned.

*

Althea runs into Tyne Patterson when she's about to leave the Sheriff's office.

"I've been having the craziest day ever." Tyne says, shaking her head as she looks at a file in her hand.

"I know the feeling." Althea says with a lopsided smile.

"Off home, Lieutenant?"

"Almost. Gotta do some follow-up first."

A guy in a suit, who's obviously not local police comes walking in. "Ma'am, we're ready to go."

"Good." Patterson nods. "Have a good night, Lieutenant."

"You too."

They go outside. Patterson raps a few times against the tinted windows of the van outside, before she gets into her own car. The convoy starts driving out of the driveway of the Sheriff's office. Not the mother, she thinks as they drive out of Charming, but maybe the father.

*

Nero gets out of his car, stretching after the long drive. His uncle comes to greet him.

"What about your friends?" His uncle asks.

"They couldn't make it after all."

*

"Will there be horses too, Wendy?" Abel asks, nose pressed against the car window.

"You'll have to ask your daddy about that." Wendy replies, smiling.

"I don't know yet." Jax says, mussing up his son's hair. "But maybe we can get a dog."

*

On her way to Chibs, as Althea passes the bus station, the homeless woman is waiting there. She's seen her around here a few times since she came to Charming. The woman is wearing a Sons of Anarchy hoodie. The woman smiles at her and extends her hand, palm upwards. Althea is perplexed for a moment. Then she reaches into her pocket, where she's still carrying Chibs' patches. She doesn't even know why. She places them in the woman's hand. The woman smiles at her placing the patches on top of the plush-monkey in her cart. 

"Leaving town, huh?" Althea asks, spur of the moment. "Probably smart. Death runs these streets."

The woman smiles again. "Not any longer."

The long-distance bus arrives. She pulls up her hood and enters, pushing her cart with her.

Beside Althea a flock of crows takes flight. They disappear on the horizon, just like the bus.

*

"What's the matter, Pres?"

Packer puts down the receiver. "I've just gotten a call from Charming. A few of them asked to transfer to us." He paused, shaking his head in disbelief. "The Redwood Original chapter has disbanded."

***

EPILOGUE

Althea is at the playground with her twins. It's spring all around here. Everything is blooming and birds are singing, sparrows are nesting in the trees around. Jackson comes running towards her.

"Look, mommy, what we found!" He holds out a birds nest to her, excited, while Tara is still sitting in the tree.

As she looks at it, there's something black woven into the structure. She can read a word. 'President'. Althea goes to the tree and hands the nest to her daughter.

"Put it back, honey."

*

When Chibs picks them up later they stop at the graveyard on their way home.

On Gemma's grave the pink carnation are blooming again. Moss has grown over the lower part of her tombstone, covering the line 'dedicated wife and mother'.

Beside Tara's grave a small Chestnut tree is steadily growing.

*

On the playground a few sparrows are picking at a half-eaten cookie. A girl drives by on her tricycle, accidentally knocking over her little sister's drinking bottle. Milk spills over the floor, seeping into the cookie. The birds take flight.

**Author's Note:**

> The meaning of the flowers are:
> 
> pink Carnation: the undying love of a mother
> 
> Chestnut: do me justice


End file.
